My scar looks like a fine line, not raised and looks nothing like a zipper. I have seen some scars where the NS used staples and yea it looks like a zipper.As I said mine is barely noticeable and now that I'm healed,I have to tell someone to look,and yes they are surprised. I was stitched inside and the outer skin was glued.I was up and taking a shower the next day and washed my hair.

I personally hate the term - it makes me cringe & feel sick to my stomach.

When I first found out I had SM about 3-1/2 years ago, I tried to do a little on-line research. One of the first articles I came across was from a person who had posted extremely graphic photographs of their surgical scars on-line, and referred to themselves as a "zipperhead". They went on to provide horrifying descriptions about the pain, infections, etc, and said that this was the only option available for treating Syringomyelia.

The images alone gave me nightmares for days - it was months before I found out that I was not a surgical candidate and, regardless, the type of surgery the person had posted on-line isn't even an option for my type of SM.

I personally am very comfortable with the term zipperhead, granted some others are not and I respect that. However, I on the other hand do not like the terms, Chiari warrior or chiari survivor, I find zipperhead to seem less dramatic, and far less dramatic. I do not want others around me to tell people, oh she's a warrior, or something like that, Zipperhead is just easier for me to deal with personally.

I definitely understand where you're coming from, and sort of agree with the point you make... maybe that's why I chose a plain vanilla handle . Please understand that, for me, I still have this gruesome image in my mind, and that is my problem.

I had my first surgery in 2007 (was 29). My sister saw the back of my head and, trying to make me laugh, said it looked like they did a good job of zipping me up. She called me 'zipperhead' and 'zippy' until the staples came out. It helped me stay in a good humor. Humor is the only way to deal with this b.s.

I see that this thread is a couple of years old but I thought I should show the most common meaning of zipperhead.

This is from the Urban Dictionary.

A racial slur referring to people of East Asian descent, coined by US soldiers during the Korean War. There are multiple proposed origins, but the most commonly accepted is that it if enemy Asian soldiers were shot in the head with high-powered weapons, their heads would split as if they had been "unzipped". Another origin could be that when enemy soldiers were ran over by military Jeeps, there would be tire tracks on them that resembled zippers. It's violent origin makes it a particularly derogatory pejorative.